Health care figure running for Florida Governor

By Ben Smith

04/13/10 02:41 PM EDT

The hard-fought Florida political scene race just got a bit more complicated: Rick Scott, the former hospitals executive whose Conservatives for Patients Rights played a key role in opposition to President Obama's health care overhaul, is joining the race for governor, and launching his first statewide television ad, above, Thursday.

Scott is seeking the Republican nomination as, an adviser says, a "conservative outsider." He'll be running for the nomination against Attorney General Bill McCollum, who has failed to inspire the excitement attached to Senate candidate Marco Rubio, but who has also benefitted from an unexpectedly weak effort by the presumptive Democratic nominee, State Treasurer Alex Sink.

Scott, who personally underwrote Conservatives for Patients Rights media campaign, may have the resources to make it a race, though he brings with him a controversial departure from the health care industry: His company, Columbia/HCA, settled massive federal fraud charges after his departure. (He says the company was innocent and should have fought the charges.)

Scott seems to be aiming at capturing some of Rubio's grassroots conservative energy, and capitalizing on a climate in which opposition to health care legislation is a major credential in a Republican primary.

“Florida needs a conservative who is not afraid to upset the apple cart, an outsider who is not part of the political establishment, and a businessman who knows how to create jobs, cut costs, balance budgets, and bring new ideas to old problems," he says in a statement. "When I am Governor, our government will live within its means. We will balance our budgets without Obama’s stimulus funds. We will create jobs the American way - in the private sector. We will renew Florida’s entrepreneurial spirit and make our state, once again, the place where everyone wants to be.”

Scott may capitalize on the running scandal in the state's Republican Party, which has begun to threaten McCollum, who reportedly did little to police the GOP, even as revelations unfolded.